What would happen if we got Bill Gates––who once took his executives to see the gorillas at Kahuzi Biega and later took his honeymoon among the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains––to sit down with Ted Turner, Richard Leakey, and Richard Bronson to talk conservation?

We could give them the status of conservation in Central Africa in general, and the bushmeat issue in particular, as a case study, and ask them to draw up a business-like master plan.

I would like to predict that the resulting document would describe a drastically different approach from current attempts to deal with what is now recognized as a major conservation crisis. And that is what is needed. A drastic new approach might very well represent the last chance for most of Central Africa’s primates and other wildlife.

“I read in our local newspaper about the shocking and barbaric third annual Midwestern Coyote Calling Championship, held in January in St. Francis, Kansas,” wrote Nancy Lee, of Boulder, Colorado.

“As I know how committed you are to the welfare of animals, I’m hoping you’ll want to publicize this atrocity,” Lee continued. “If we let the powers that be in St. Francis know that decent citizens won’t put up with this kind of slaughter, maybe they’ll reconsider holding it next year.”

Added Louise Wilson Davis, in the letter to the Boulder Daily Camera that alerted Lee, “Perhaps St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, would like the name of this town to be changed.”

I am part of a small organization of Mexican and American citizens in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, trying to start a shelter for the street animals. We have nothing here for the protection of animals, and the conditions for the animals here are horrible. In May the city will dispatch trucks to throw out into the street hundreds of hot dogs laced with strychnine. That is how the population is controlled, or so they think. Approaching the city is on our list of things to do, but without a facility we are somewhat powerless. We are waiting to hear back from the city about possibly using some of their land. Meanwhile puppies and kittens are born every day in the street. We desperately need help!

On page 21 of our March 2000 edition ANIMAL PEOPLE reported that U.S. retail fur sales soared 30% in 1999, according to the Fur Information Council, reaching $1.57 billion––the highest mark, by far, since 1988.

As we pointed out, $1.57 billion in 1999 dollars is still 30% less than $1.85 billion was in 1988 dollars. The fur trade remains well short of recovery––but that made no difference to millions of animals who were bred to be killed on fur farms or were trapped this past winter, as furriers gambled that fur is back, and bid raw pelt prices up to their highest level since an erroneous rumor of a comeback sparked a pelt-buying frenzy in 1994-1995.

Honolulu––Proponents of a Hawaii Department of Health Vector Control Division plan to ban feeding feral cats claimed at January public hearings that neuter/return practitioners who rely on feeding to lure cats into cage traps couldn’t possibly raise funds enough to fix all the half million cats whom state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall estimates are at large on Maui alone.

Veterinarian Sabina M. Wenner, founder and president of the Animal CARE Foundation (Hawaii), fixed that objection on February 23. Calling a press conference at Kakaako Beach State Park, where the ongoing dispute between kill-the-cats and fix-thecats factions has been most intense, Wenner announced receipt of a $10 million grant from an anonymous out-of-state donor.

“Wenner said it has not yet been decided how much money will be allocated to other Animal CARE Foundation (Hawaii) programs,” reported Pat Gee of the Honolulu S t a r – B u l l e t i n, “but said the focus will be to prevent cat deaths, by trapping them, neutering them, and returning them to an appropriate environment. Some of the funds would be used to set up facilities” to do neutering, and to provide care for cats who cannot be returned to the sites where they were caught.

CHRISTCHURCH, TOKYO, OTTAWA; State Capitols, U.S.– – New Zealand, since January 1, 2000, has had reputedly the broadest-ranging and most up-to-date anti-cruelty act in the world, replacing an act dating to 1960.

Japan on December 14, 1999 updated its 1973 anti-cruelty act, enabling judges to imprison as well as fine animal abusers.

As spring legislative sessions rushed to a close, improved anti-cruelty bills appeared likely to pass in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, and Wyoming. Bills before the Canadian Parliament and the legislatures of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia seemed to have less chance.

VATICAN CITY, PRETORIA, BANGALORE, PARIS, SINGAPORE, ISTANBUL––Pope John Paul II on March 12 asked forgiveness from God for the sins of Roman Catholics through the ages, mentioning offenses against Jews, ethnic minorities, women, and children.

The Roman Catholic Church has persecuted animals too, in all the same ways, and in many of the same places and times. But the closest the Pope came to mentioning animals in his prayer was a brief allusion to “those who abuse the promise of biotechnology.”

The Pope did not say whether this included the researchers of Cattletech Ltd., a British firm which has injected hormones from the urine of menopausal Italian nuns into milk cows in order to increase the frequency with which they produce multiple transplantable embryos. The idea is to produce more super-producing cows, faster, to replace the four million cattle Britain has killed in the national effort to stop the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease).

University of Illinois veterinary student Linnaea Stull, who led the struggle to end mandatory dog labs at UI (page 10) has won the United Animal Nations Animals’ Choice award for outstanding commitment.

The Canterbury chapter of Royal SPCA of New Zealand on February 15 memorialized realtor Mary Rathie, whose estate built the RSPCA a new cat shelter. Rathie, 84, died in March 1998.

Chelonian Research Institute founder Peter Pritchard, 56, of Oviedo, Florida, was on February 21 named T i m e magazine’s seventh “Hero for the Planet” for his work on behalf of sea turtles.

Charles Sutherland, 65, of Lahaina, Hawaii, reportedly dying of lung cancer, was honored by the Hawaii House of Representatives on February 27 for his work to protect humpback whales.

Ruth Frankel, 87, died on March 3 of leukemia at her apartment in Newport Beach, California, comforted to the last by Phanni, a formerly feral cat she had rescued, along with five kittens, from the Balboa Theater. Frankel had reportedly battled leukemia for 40 years. Teaching English and history at Huntington Beach High School for 31 years, Frankel founded the Animal Assistance League of Orange County upon retiring in 1973. The organization “now has kennel capacity for 20 animals, a roster of hundreds of volunteers, a low-cost spay/neuter program, and an $1,800-a-month budget from private donations,” wrote Elaine Gale of the Los Angeles Times. The current president is Jackie Keener.

Bonnie Findlay, 79, founder of the Bambi Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary in Little Ranches, Florida, died on March 4. A former veterinary surgical nurse, Findlay “for three decades ran the 30-acre wildlife hospital and rehabilitation center, aided by her halfbrother Wally,” recalled Neil Santaniello of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. “For many years it was the only wildlife rehab center in Palm Beach County.” Aiding as many as 700 animals a year, the center faltered after Wally Findlay “died on February 4, 1997, at age 72, in a deliberately set fire on the grounds,” Santaniello continued, adding that “Ms. Findlay and helpers brought it back to life.”

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